Stock Market Today: Stocks Struggle To Gain Traction Around Record Highs

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published 4 March 2024

Equity markets struggled to gain traction around record highs Monday as they looked to a jam-packed week that includes the Fed chief's testimony before Congress and the jobs report.

Apple (AAPL) helped pace all 30 Dow Jones stocks lower with its 2.5% decline to $175.50. The iPhone maker lost $70 billion in market capitalization after the European Union slapped it with a $2 billion antitrust fine for thwarting competition from music streaming rivals through restrictions on its App Store.

But Apple wasn't the only Magnificent 7 stock to help drag markets lower on the day. Most mega-cap tech names pulled back after a red-hot run that took both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite to record closes on Friday.

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Be that as it may, Nvidia (NVDA) bucked the trend in a big way Monday, gaining 3.6%. Anyone who put $1,000 into NVDA 20 years ago would be very pleased with the results today. NVDA ended the session with a market value of $2.13 trillion.

Elsewhere, upcoming changes were announced to the S&P 500. Super Micro Computer (SMCI) stock vaulted on being tapped for the benchmark index, but analysts think Deckers Outdoor (DECK) might be the better buy.

Economic calendar in focus

More than anything, the economic calendar will be in focus this week. And so experts say Monday's pause is understandable after such a run.

"The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite are each up seven of the previous eight weeks and higher in sixteen of the last eighteen weeks," writes Anthony Saglimbene, chief market strategist at Ameriprise. "On the latter, that's the longest such winning streak in over fifty years."

Although Saglimbene notes "strength across the market this year seems to be building momentum," it's a fact of life that markets never move in a straight line. An upcoming week with heavy implications for interest rate policy is right to give investors pause.

On Wednesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell heads to Capitol Hill for his semi-annual report to Congress. The Fed chief last appeared in front of Congress in June 2023, just as the central bank was nearing the end of its aggressive series of rate hikes that brought the federal funds rate to its current 23-year-high range of 5.25% to 5.5%.

While market participants are anxious for the Federal Reserve to start cutting interest rates, recent commentary from Powell and other central bank officials indicate they will not do so until they are certain inflation is coming down to the Fed's 2% target.

During this week’s semi-annual monetary policy report to congress, we expect Fed Chair Powell to emphasize that the FOMC is in no rush to cut," writes Michael Gregory, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets.

Markets also have to digest the fact that on Friday, we get the mother of all economic reports: the next jobs report. After all, the remarkably robust labor market – and the rising wages that come with it – is making the Fed wary about rushing into rate cuts.

At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.3%, while the broader S&P 500 ticked down 0.1%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 0.4% during the session.

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Dan Burrows is Kiplinger's senior investing writer, having joined the publication full time in 2016.

A long-time financial journalist, Dan is a veteran of MarketWatch, CBS MoneyWatch, SmartMoney, InvestorPlace, DailyFinance and other tier 1 national publications. He has written for The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and Consumer Reports and his stories have appeared in the New York Daily News, the San Jose Mercury News and Investor's Business Daily, among many other outlets. As a senior writer at AOL's DailyFinance, Dan reported market news from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Once upon a time – before his days as a financial reporter and assistant financial editor at legendary fashion trade paper Women's Wear Daily – Dan worked for Spy magazine, scribbled away at Time Inc. and contributed to Maxim magazine back when lad mags were a thing. He's also written for Esquire magazine's Dubious Achievements Awards.

In his current role at Kiplinger, Dan writes about markets and macroeconomics.

Dan holds a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College and a master's degree from Columbia University.

Disclosure: Dan does not trade individual stocks or securities. He is eternally long the U.S equity market, primarily through tax-advantaged accounts.